By the time they made their third album in 2002, Leicester's freakbeaters Bronco Bullfrog had relocated to London where they had access to a number of pro-studios, but they were a little light on material. So Andy Morten broke his monopoly a bit to allow bandmates Louis Wiggett and Mike Poulson to get more involved in the songwriting. The results were somewhat mixed. Although the album was very consistent with the group's deliberately retro vibe, that retro-ness was wearing thin for the band's leader, who felt that too many of the songs were derivative. When you hear how the Beatlesque "Barnaby Slade" and "I'm Not Getting Through" both recycled offbeat "Taxman" guitar accents and "Last Chance to Smile" begins with a "Pictures of Lily" descending chord figure before finishing with a substitute "Substitute" lick, you'll agree he has a point.
Lest you worry Bronco Bullfrog's unabashedly retro melange of Beatle-esque harmonizing, Beck-esque feedbacking, and Moon-esque drum-pummeling is a bit too calculatedly retro, dig into chief songwriter Andy Morten's way with words. Even Townshend would have stayed his pen before scribbling anything as grungy as "I can smell the shit baking in the sun," and Petey certainly wouldn't have had the expectation-scrambling audacity to sneak it into a genuinely sweet and nostalgic ode to summertime that would make Brian Wilson weep.
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